This application is for partial funding for the 1999 FASEB Summer Conference on "Transcription Initiation in Prokaryotes" to be held on July 3-8, 1999 at the Vermont Academy in Saxton's River, Vermont. The conference is held under the auspices of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). There will be 10 major oral sessions, each including, on average, three 30 minute talks and two 15 minute talks per session. There will be two poster sessions, each lasting two days. The topics to be included for discussion are: structure of DNA- dependent RNA polymerases; physical and chemical approaches to study protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions in transcription; subunit structure, function, and catalysis; sigma factors, antisigmas, and core interactions; promoters (two sessions); repression and silencing; formation and stability of elongation complexes; complex regulatory systems; and signal transduction. The meeting focuses on eubacteria, but there will be consideration of both archaea and eukaryotes where comparison is interesting. The purpose of the meeting is to bring together biochemists, biophysicists and geneticists to share information. The field is progressing rapidly and providing important new information on structure and mechanisms at the molecular level. This is the fifth conference on the subject. The first four, held in 1991, 1993, 1995, and 1997, were very well attended.